I guess this is in response to what I posted earlier; I did not intend the concept of "market out to get you" as an excuse for one's failures at all. It is completely your own responsibility whether or not that statement is "effectively" true. What I meant was that thinking of the market as a conglomerate of competitors all trying to profit off one another (yourself included) is much more productive than holding the notion that the market is random; the former is the inherent definition of a marketplace, the latter an academic misconception. To borrow your term, I think the notion of random is the "lousy excuse" here, for what better way is there to excuse one's own failures than that?
Mafia, thank you for sharing. As you all can see, when you work in a currency trading firm like Mafia or are a CTA who has had the privilege to meet other forex traders face to face like Spike500, then you become aware of the odds. Seeing is believing. Mafia, what are they teaching you? Don't call your boss your mentor. Do you have access to Reuters? How many traders are at your firm? Do they charge you commission? What is the minimum account?
I sign a disclosure agreement with the firm, so I wont provide any specific information about it. Deptrai, When I started, they spent two weeks teaching me about the basic mechanic and some fundamental, economic about the FX market. After that, you got to learn on your own. We hold a 1-2 hours dicussion between all people in the firm everyday. All trainees have access to senior traders anytime as long as they are not busy. Nobody hide their screens in my firm. Everybody know what others are doing. I like it that way. We pay normal commision 1-6 pips depend on the pairs. I dont know exactly how much senior traders in my firm make, but I see their screens and trading accounts everyday. The usually size on one position is between 15-40 standard lots.
I understand you've signed an NDA. Since you've mentioned position size, could you at least also indicate approximately what leverage the senior traders at your firm typically use? For each position, as well as for the account as a whole. I think that would be a truly helpful reality check to many here. Thanks.
I traded for three years before becoming consistently profitable. It had to do more with money management than with the trading model, by the way. But if you need some kinda bone to chase that has to do with what it takes for a trading model to be successful in FX or any other instrument, it is this: A GOOD EXIT STRATEGY This is true for both winning and losing trades and ultimately makes or breaks your risk management model as well. Get the process of building a good exit strategy down, and you will increase your probability of survival/success in any market by several orders of magnitude. This info is widely available in books and on websites. You'll find it here, on Moneytec, on ForexFactory, on Globalview, and in other free internet fora. Whatever you do, don't pay someone a thousand bucks to teach you. Keep the fires burning man.
imo, its the hardest instrument in that success depends on very keen awareness and understanding of technical analysis. nothing else matters.. sure, there will be days where news will affect certain prices, and fundamental analysis does play into the broad picture, but if you want to be successful, you have to have a system you have developed yourself that works.